Strata: Lazarus Arises

A dead man raised to life, one of the finest 18th-century painters in the New World, an international art heist. How do these three scenes fit together?

They relate to the painting Resurrection of Lazarus by Miguel Cabrera, who lived from 1695 to 1768 in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (modern Mexico). Celebrated as the greatest painter of his time in New Spain, Cabrera was a favorite of the archbishop of Mexico City. He was commissioned to do many works, the majority of which were religious in nature, but he also painted some portraits, including his own.

In 2008, nine oil paintings by Cabrera were stolen from a church in Lima, Peru.

Eight of these were recovered from an auction house in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 2008, but the ninth and final stolen painting—The Resurrection of Lazarus—remained elusive.